taSH FELLOl^SHIP CLUB 



OF CHKAGO 



Senator J^Haimilton Lew 

of IDinois 



ia 



JUNP 2nd, 191/ 

H O 1^ K L S H E R M A N 




ADDRESS 



Senator J. Hamilton Lewis 

OF ILLINOIS i, 



BEFORE THE 

IRISH FELLOWSHIP CLUB 

OF CHICAGO 



JAMES V. O'DONNELL, President 
Reaper Block 

THOMAS A. SHEEHAN, Secretary 
Corn Exchange Building 



H.K 



SATURDAY, JUNE SECOND 

1917 



SEf 1 1'" 



J^^x' 



Chairman O'Donnell: The distinguished gentleman, who will 
speak to us needs no introduction to the members of the Fellowship 
Club, nor does he need an introduction to any Chicago audience. I 
have been trying for the past six or eight weeks — rather, I will 
amend that and say, we have been trying for the past six or eight 
weeks, to get in touch with this gentleman, and, fortunately, by acci- 
dent, we discovered yesterday that he was in the city, and we lost 
no time in engaging his services, and I desire to say that we owe him 
a debt of gratitude for being here today, because I know of my 
own personal knowledge that he cancelled two very important en- 
gagements to be with us. He is a fellow-member of ours ; he be- 
longs to the Irish Fellowship Club, and there is one good thing about 
him — he has always been generous with his services to this Club — 
he is always at our service. There is a bond of friendship between 
Senator Lewis and this Club! (Applause). 

I know that he has the highest personal regard for the Club 
and its membership. We all know that his time is restricted so far 
as he is concerned, and it has been difficult to get him for the reason 
that Senator Lewis today is one of the busiest men in the United 
States. He is actively engaged, and has been actively engaged in 
seeing that legislation went through in aid of our President in this 
critical situation and he is a valuable man in Washington, and one 
of the most valuable in the Senate. I therefore feel that we are ex- 
ceedingly fortunate in having him here with us today. 

As I said before, he needs no introduction to any Chicago aud- 
ience. I take great pleasure in presenting our Senator, James Ham- 
ilton Lewis! (Applause). 



2.: 



Senator Lewis: 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am somewhat be- 
wildered, in view of my knowledge of this Club, that it should choose 
today for its principal speakers two representatives of famous gas 
establishments ! (Laughter). My brother Cowdery, of the Peoples 
Gas Light & Coke Company, of Chicago, and myself, for the United 
States Senate. (Laughter). 

I appreciate greatly the flattering introduction of my brother 
beloved, and long friend' of years, your eminent president ; but, I 
am due to be just with you, and to take you fairly into my con- 
fidence. I was not invited here. I met my old friend, Judge Han- 
ecy, in the Mid-Day Club and remarked to him that I proposed 
breaking some engagements being then pressed upon me, because I 
wanted to come here, to come to see you, to thank you for extend- 
ing me the invitation you did on March 17th, that I was unable to 
accept by virtue of having agreed to speak at Philadelphia. I told 
him that I wanted to renew my acquaintance with old friends, and 
that I intended to slip in, partake of some food, and shake hands 
with my old comrades of the Irish Fellowship. The judge com- 
municated, I am sure, this very pleasant desire of mine, and so I 
am in a position of having invited myself, and accepted myself the 
invitation. (Laughter). 

You remember, you Irishmen, you of poetic turn of soul, of 
Mangan's exquisite allegory — of the man who went up to the gates 
of Heaven, being asked by the man guarding the portal : "What 
are you doing here?" and he replied: "I am here." The guardian 
of the gate said: "Yes, I see you are here, but who invited you?" 
The man replied : "I did." "Who told you that you could get in ?" 
And he answered, "I did." "Why, do you think you own Heaven?" 
and he replied, "Well, when I think of its many kindnesses to me, 
I think I must." (Laughter). 

So, when I remember the many kindnesses this Club has ex- 
tended to me, and the many honors its members have confei-red upon 
me, I feel that if I didn't own the Club, in view of its many cour- 
tesies to me, I feel I must. And, for that reason, I take the lib- 
erty to come and tell you the message that came to me. Judge 
O'Donnell called me on the 'phone and said, "Is this Lewis?" I 
said, "Yes." "Lewis," he said, "I understand you are in town, and 
you are going to come over ?" I then explained my situation. He 
said, "It is all right about your engagement; you can come over. 



you know, and we want to have you there; we will forget your 
political differences (laughter) ; we will overlook your personal 
mistakes, and, indeed," he said, "the members are so charitable 
they will excuse how you look." (Laughter). Therefore, you 
can understand I felt perfectly free to come. (Laughter). 

It is late in the afternoon, Mr. Chairman, you have listened 
to a musical concert by artists who have delighted us with their 
finesse and exquisiteness of execution ; and to an eminent master of 
finance — of one of the great concerns in this community, who has 
addressed you ; and I recognize that many of you have your engage- 
ments and you must leave. I trust you will not feel under any ob- 
ligation to inconvenience yourself by remaining with me, much as 
I would like to have you, for I understand the obligation of other 
duties. But, since I am here, permit me to have a word with you. 

I would like you to bear with me while I have a conversation 
with you about the subject that now seriously concerns your land 
and the world. How strange, that here in this little assembly, we 
should on this day be forced to make allusion to those things which, 
by the prayers the women send to God and the hopes of men, ex- 
pressed the life dream of all civilization in America, we prayed de- 
liverance from war ! But, alas ! It was not decreed that we should 
realize our hope. 

You will remember when the king's valet seats himself for a 
moment, and calls in Richard and says to the knight — "Sit down; 
come let us sit down and tell the sad story of the death of kings; 
how some have died ; how some have been poisoned in their beds, 
and others pass with their crowns crumbling — all murdered by the 
times!" To which the knight says to the valet, "And our house, 
good servant?" And he responds, "Alas, oh God, it is also in 
flames !" 

So, at this day, whether we will or whether we will not, here 
is our mansion, lighted up to its eaves with the licking fires which 
have been consuming all Europe. And we behold in these reflec- 
tions what must be our course. It is in assemblies like this, if I am 
permitted to intrude upon them — it is an assemblage like this, ladies 
and gentlemen, where we reach more closely and understand more 
seriously the things that touch our personal life, much more so than 
in the larger assemblage where we meet in force, and serve an occa- 
sion by great gatherings, through large assemblies which beat against 
each other like waves, where little attention is paid except to man- 
ner and to form, but little indeed to the expression and sentiment. 

4 



I never was so struck in my life with that fact, than when I 
had occasion to speak in St. James Hall, in London, upon an occa- 
sion where I represented this government, two years ago — a year 
and a half, perchance — at a gathering called to establish uniform 
laws for safety at sea. I was impressed by the thought that those 
who came, came rather to see those who would speak, rather than 
to hear what they would say. It fell to my lot at St. Petersburg 
to address the remnants of the first duma; and I likewise was im- 
pressed there, as I already have upon other occasions, of how audi- 
ences assembled there to really see the performers, but hardly to 
hear the message. But you cannot escape. In assemblies like this, 
where, at your own inconvenience, you have possibly forsaken your 
office at the expense of your comfort, you remain here to hear one 
of your fellow-citizens in a conversation, speak to you the things 
that are yours, not wholly his. 

This country, my fellow-citizens, has not yet been aroused to 
the fact that it is involved in the greatest tragedy that is now circum- 
scribing this earth. Why, in America, we have not awakened to 
the fact that this Republic is at war. You do not yet know that 
the facts of the morrow determine all the after-days for you ! You 
have not yet awakened or aroused yourself to the truth — that the 
outcome of the thing in which you are mingling now, must mean 
that you will remain a free spirit of a free republic or dependent for 
existence subject to European imperial power. 

There can be no middle ground, my constituents and friends. 
Whether you should have this war or not, is closed. That decree 
has been passed. That judgment has been moulded and the only 
thing that you can choose is the way that you will accept it, and 
the thing that you will do in its pursuit. It is to be regretted that 
the imperial power of Germany, led by the Prussian prince of mili- 
tary despotism, could not have left this great United States exempt 
from the throes of conflict, apart from the effect of its assaults or 
from being the victims of murder. 

We had never done a wrong to Prussia; we opened our gates 
to her people ; we bade them welcome at our door ; we took their 
children to our bosom ; they were nurtured in our schools ; they 
were educated in our colleges ; they assisted us on our farms, and, 
from all over this land, her descendants were welcome as our own 
fellow-citizens. It did not seem possible that for these and many 
other blessings, communicated to them and conferred upon them, 
that their fatherland would turn upon the United States to inflict 
upon it, as it did, such onslaughts of death and destruction as we 
were compelled to endure. 

5 



The war had sounded in Europe. We were startled here, but 
we felt secure that it would not reach us. We proposed following 
a course, that was a neutral course between the combatants. But 
there was a fate, ever reserved to the United States by virtue of 
all our past traditions, and the long-settled policy of our Republic, 
which was that it would pursue its own business in its own way, in 
the same manner and form as had been its custom and manner with- 
out regard to other countries at war — this meant that we would 
sell our products, dispose of our goods, for our people, according 
to that spirit of right, and the natural demand — this for America's 
commercial welfare. 

At the outset, the Allies objected to that. They charged that 
in this enjoyment of our privilege we furnished grain and susten- 
ance to the central powers, which we speak of as the German Im- 
perial Government. The Allies protested and carried their protest 
to such a degree that England seized our ships, many of them 
carrying grain, and impressed them in such form that we were com- 
pelled to protest to the full extent of our power. 

Then, the central powers observed that in our supplies to the 
Allies, arms, munitions — the result of our factories, the creation of 
our industries — were being disposed of and these particular agencies 
were used against the central powers in the execution of war. Im- 
perial Germany leveled its assaults against us by attacking the ships 
of America, not by seizing them and carrying them into a port and 
having them condemned — but shot at sight. They never violated 
any of the international laws to be shot for, or to be expelled from 
the seas or denied opportunity on the seas of the world. Their 
innocent occupants were in no wise responsible for whatever the 
ship did, or from the orders of the country from whence the ship 
had come — yet were killed without warning. 

We endured this in four different instances. We constantly 
protested through representatives, but the protests, unaccompanied 
by any form of force, I deplore to say to my fellow-citizens — 
seemed to have been treated by the Prussian autocracy as a pro- 
test that was not seriously meant; as one that came from cowards, 
because it was accompanied by politeness ; as one that was the re- 
sult of weakness, because it was surrounded by form and gentle- 
nesSi Then following that came the assaults on the part of the 
Prussian government, upon every vessel that carried the products 
of the central west. Finally forty-five had succumbed — three hun- 
dred and eighty human beings — Americans — had died. Little chil- 
dren floated with whitened faces upon the seas to parts unknown, 
to be made the foul food of the animals of the sea; with their 
mothers beside them, to drop to the depths below ; and manly men 
around them, whose only offense was that they were Americans — 
were sent to the graves of the watery ocean to be seen thereafter 
no more — no more by friend or beloved ones. Surely America 
could not endure that always. 



Still she made her protest and announced to the Prussian mili- 
tary government that we could not endure this, and we obtained 
the announcement from Prussia that she had drawn the circum- 
ference around the earth and the water of the sea, and announced 
to America if it dared to come within this demarked region she 
would die as a penalty. Prussia then extended her boundaries 
carrying it further and further until it threatened us with the 
penalty of having no rights upon the seas of the earth. And it 
may interest you, in Chicago, to know that it was your products 
from Chicago; your products of the factories of Chicago, which 
were the first victims of this cruel decree against the Americans. 
It was the ships carrying the products of Illinois that were set upon 
immediately after this; and citizens of Illinois who died — mur- 
dered. 

It seemed then impossible that this would continue on the part 
of Prussia. We protested and remonstrated. The answer to this 
last protest was to have the war lords circumscribe our land with 
spies. They placed these spies about our factories. These were 
to inform the proper sources when the factory was to be blown 
by dynamite to death. They had spies placed around the homes 
of wealthy men of America, with directions to say when and who 
should be killed. They had maps drawn of the waterworks of the 
cities, and of this, my city of Chicago, defining every ramification 
of it; scheduling every gas company and every gas establishment 
and every repository of power of life and death. These were chron- 
icled and listed, and to these were added directions of how to strike 
it and when, and also describing the number of the inhabitants sur- 
rounding these establishments who would die by its explosion, and 
how defenseless they were to oppose it. 

When these were discovered, we could not speak to our Am- 
erican country. Our chairman was so kind as to speak of my small 
part in the affairs of this government. I am one of those admitted 
to the councils of the President of the United States, and one of 
those who have control of this government, who may be said to 
be responsible for having given this information to you. And I 
speak deliberately, lest I appear unjust to someone in the haste 
of utterance. I, for myself, felt that those German citizens of my 
city, who were innocent of these death designs and who would be 
so shocked if they knew of them, and whose hearts would so rebel 
— that such a thing had been undertaken — these might become the 
victims of an aroused anger, to the degree of mob violence ; and 
for that reason I protested to such sources of authority as I was 
then addressing myself, with whatever influence I carried, against 
the publicity at that time of these things. But later, we were com- 
pelled to give to the Austrian representatives their certificates of 
dismissal ; and we were compelled to tell you in part the reasons. 
You knew something of the explosions in factories ; you knew 
nothing of the surrounding dangers to the human factors and perils 



such as I have just alluded to. You could not have suspected the 
information borne in upon us by sources so indisputable that they 
shocked us with horror and agitated us with the danger that caused 
us sleepless nights. But, notwithstanding all this— this which might 
have been a lesson to those against assailing us further — there was 
no let-up. Those mad maniacs of monarchial power seemed in- 
censed to anger beyond description because of our discoveries. We 
had never wronged a man of theirs in the world. These distant 
kings seemed to take these considerations of indulgence on our 
part of our silence and caution as an exhibition of cowardice on the 
part of America. We were held in every part of the world as lack- 
ing courage to resent, and wanting bravery to defend. Every court 
of Europe was circularized against us in language most contemptible 
from these eminent princes and lords of war. They circularized us 
and described us as in terms so unworthy that I could not repeat 
them without offending my countrymen and wounding my own sense 
of dignity. 

We, of course, could not be blind to this, nor were we ignorant. 
Yet, as suggested, as all knew, that our Germans at home here 
could be no party to that. We knew that our German citizens and 
their friends who believed in their cause, would never have re- 
sorted to that. We could not be convinced they could ever have 
endorsed it by any word or action in the world. We again gave 
way even to that affront, but again, when our ships and our people 
were again and again torpedoed, to their death, we could not longer 
endure it. We threatened — then their reply was six more ships 
destroyed, upon whose decks twenty-three human beings sent to 
death. Americans died for no wrong they ever did, nor for an 
unkind word they ever had spoken against Germany or Austria. 
In further response, Prussia announced to us that she and Aus- 
tria would not only resume the war again with its full extent of 
fury and desolation, but she would take up against us and extend 
her activities against us at home. There was not a factory in Illi- 
nois but what must wither — there was not a commercial establish- 
ment in Chicago that must not have its exports cut away — there 
was not a concern of prosperity in my town that would not propor- 
tionately be weakened. We would not endure these central powers 
closing the sea. Upon our commerce we have survived, upon that 
we have grown rich, only because of the superiority of our own 
creation. Yet these outrages, destroying our ships, our cargo and 
our people continued. 

Then it was we again hoped to avoid war. But when we re- 
ceived the communications from the hand of Count Von Bern- 
storff, representing Prussia, that Germany would continue her as- 
saults and the demand that we abandon the seas — we gave Count 
von Bernstorff his passports and sent him home. We then declined 
further associations with the representative of people who would 
continue to inform us they would continue to murder us. 

8 



Yet we still hoped there would still be an end without war. If 
you do not know that which I now speak, is because you have been 
busy and too far removed from the scene and trusting to your rep- 
resentatives that they speak fairly to you. We do not believe the 
great German people of Germany gave countenance to this. The 
great mass of its people, its humble farmers, tillers of the soil, its 
toilers in schools, in mills and in factories, would realize the in- 
justice of this. The Prussian princes who seemed to be the power, 
simply increased the command and ordered further our destruction. 
We then tried diplomatic negotiations to avoid war. But it was 
all without avail. Our hope was destined to failure. Our prayers 
brought no reward. Nothing we could do had encouragement. We 
were again confronted with that curse of destruction set upon us. 
For myself, I could understand, and surely did understand, how 
Prussia might assail a ship going from American waters, carrying 
the flag of a belligerent, even though it had American goods and 
American citizens on board — I could see that there might be those 
of its army or navy who could feel justified from their point of 
view on the ground that the ship was the ship of an enemy, and I 
could understand the equity of the claim, though I could not, of 
course, endorse the killing of my countrymen, under no conditions 
where they were harmless and innocent. Yet, Prussia, having grown 
courageous and audacious with her assaults upon us, taking for li- 
cense that our inaction was at least cowardice, turned her batteries 
to the ships of the United States, carrying American flags. Out- 
side of the limited seas — ships that were on their way, destined to 
the ports of Sweden, Denmark and Greece, they bore not one ounce 
of ammunition, not one pound of contraband, not one individual 
but whose prayer was for peace and happiness — the men on board 
praying that they might return to the wives and homes — the sailors, 
that they might see the shores of America again — the little chil- 
dren romping the decks in their innocence, ignorant in their joyous 
mood that danger or death was pursuing their little lives. Yet, it 
was these ships, one after the other, that this Prussian master of 
murder turned all his weapons of destruction upon and shot to death 
three more American ships, one after the other, one of which car- 
ried some rock, another some lumber, and another carried food for 
the Austrian poor — sent by the charitable organizations of America. 
And these murderous assaults sent three hundred human beings — 
Americans — to their graves in the distant sea, shot to death at mid- 
night without one word of warning — without a word of consolation 
— without anyone asking for a response as to where they were go- 
ing or what they had — not one moment to even speak the truth of 
their justification — but for myself, I shall stand firmly on the 
were from anything in the world that was a wrong to Prussia or 
her people. 

And then we received the final defiance that against anything 
that was x'Vmerican — everything that was property — was to be de- 
stroyed, if it dared to take the sea, American lives to be murdered 



if found on the vessels, regardless of what they were or what mis- 
sion was theirs. Then, in the face of this, there was but one thing 
we could do. We were Americans. We must resent. And then 
it was we declared war. 

We declared war upon those who killed our countrymen, with- 
out reason, murdered them without excuse — without justification. 
It is there that you are — you are in war because of those wrongs 
against your countrymen. I know, my fellow-citizens, that from 
the President of the United States, and from others in very high 
authority there comes the expression that we have entered this con- 
flict for democracy. It may be sufficient that there are those who 
are content to base their action upon that ground of general service 
to humanity at large. There may be those who are content to rest 
their course justifiably upon the theory of investing the world with 
the blessings of democracy, and to indicate our purpose to establish 
that freedom everywhere. These — wherever they may be — may 
have that for their object, and may be content to have that alone for 
their justification — but for myself, I shall stand firmly on the 
ground that so far as I am concerned, I am warring against Prus- 
sia, because without reason or justification, she murdered Amer- 
ican citizens without right, against the laws of man and God. Here 
I am content to stand. Here I shall stand. And that she has 
sought, and continues to seek, with her military despotism, to rob 
America of her rights before the earth, and declines to permit Am- 
erica the use of the waters of the world, as ordained by Almighty 
God, when he ordained that the earth, sea and fruits thereof man 
should have and enjoy. 

I cannot concede to Prussia the right to repeal the law of Al- 
mighty God and drive America from the continent of Earth by 
depriving her of all the enjoyment of the rights of man on earth — 
the just inheritance from the Kingdom of Heaven. (Applause). 

But to my neighbors, I say, I wish all lands well. I would, if 
it were in my power, strike the shackles of Prussian government 
from the form of all civilization. But as far as I have it in my 
power to execute this, I realize I can only hope that in the co-op- 
eration of men we may see some day its realization. 

I am compelled to come to the threshold of my home, to the 
doorways of my people, to the gates of my city, to call them to the 
alarm of where they stand. You have entered upon the greatest mili- 
tary undertaking this Republic ever heard of. In the quiet, silent 
moments in which you sit, day and night, my neighbors, you do not 
measure the undertaking you have entered upon. It is at present 
too far from you. It has not yet reached close enough to you. 
You remember, my dear Mr. Chairman, and you gentlemen, that 
splendid Irishman, Leckie, in his observation in his book known as 
"The History of Europeans Morals" — called attention to that strange 
conduct of the human being, that there along the Ganges in India, 
there are thirty thousand human beings daily starving to death, and 

10 



we view them at such a distance as simply but a passing matter and 
it is forgotten. But the fisherman, sitting upon the bank of a 
stream, will have his attention arrested at the snake swallowing the 
frog in the water, and will behold it with horror and strike it with 
his rod, that he might stay the destruction. It was near to him. 
The other was so distant. He could feel the one that he saw, slight 
as it was — but he could not even appreciate the other, great as it 
was. 

But, as this conflict nears to you, and as your noble sons are 
about to enter it, to mobilize in the field, with their knapsacks on 
their shoulders, and their swords and scabbards by their sides, to 
take the vow and to follow the flag of their country, 'mid the sound 
of the fifes and drums, on your streets — you will have realized 
that which you have not paused to consider — that this is the first 
war America has ever ordered on foreign soil since we have been 
founded — barring the Mexican and Cuban wars. Not even have 
you ventured towards a foreign soil, and across the seas, barring 
only the conflict upon the water in 1812 fought for the freedom of 
your commerce, and the Philippines as a part of the war in Cuba 
in the American seas. 

Therefore, gentlemen, what the countries will do is untried for 
you. These countries with which you now war, either as friends or 
enemies, have for four hundred years made it their business, in 
some form or another. There has never been a time when in their 
hearts there was not a provision being made for contemplated con- 
flict; either one for conquest or to resist one. We alone, of all 
the world, bade a good-bye to that system, and prayed to God that 
we should not be called to emulate it. Your fathers bade you take 
courage and warned you against an establishment of a system of 
death by war in America. We have had but a slight army, just 
merely a group to repel invasion, and navy only just enough to 
protect commerce, because you saw no danger to your government 
from foreign lands, whose purpose was conquest in war. That 
was the reason, gentlemen — that was the reason, women, that there 
was not that so-called preparation in America. It was as late, 
sir, as 1897, when the great Gladstone, standing on the floor of 
Parliament, complimented your America upon the isolation she en- 
joyed from the nations of the world — that exempted her from the 
necessity to have armies or navies to prepare to move to 'foreign 
lands to maintain the dignity of our nation. Little did we dream 
in how short a time that assurance would prove false. But a 
few months passed, we may say, we still held to the illusion — but 
now, here we are, at war with Europe. And now which way? — 
the military situation in Europe, gentlemen, is in a most serious 
phase. Let me give you my view : 

Within less time than in the sixty days, your soldiers will be 
mobilized, ready for marching, there will be a separate peace pro- 
posed — and maybe made — between Russia and Germany; the gov- 

11 



ernments that will come into operation in Russia will be but a step 
removed from what they are now. Those people in power in 
Russia will want to make peace with the foe at their doors, 
not as against you, but without regard to you. Their view- 
point will be, first, that they rose in revolution against the Czar 
because the Czar had made a Czar's war with another Czar called 
the Kaiser, and without their will and against their consent. They 
will say — "How can we continue the war for that against which we 
rose in revolution to protest?" Germany will be artful enough to 
appeal to this sentiment and will offer the enticing ground that 
every request they will make will be granted. 

When I was last in Russia, I had occasion to note that the real 
grievance of the Russians against the Germans was that they had 
occupied every office of state and every large agency of business. 
But, the head of the German Empire has but to make the offer to 
those of Russia in control — assuring them that they will withdraw 
every German official that ever held an office, and will withdraw 
every German head of any department of finance or business. And, 
to this then add the other proposition to give Russia her outlet at 
Constantinople. This is the first time since we have lived, or in 
history, where Germany has ever controlled Turkey. It is the 
only time she could make this offer; it is the only time she would 
have the ability to execute it. 

Then since Russia, for forty years, has been fighting in dip- 
lomacy for this one thing, the Russians will say — "Why stay at 
war ?" They will cry out that "the only things for which we warred 
are being granted. The objectionable Germans being removed" — 
if he is objectionable — "our gate to the sea being opened, what rea- 
son have v/e longer to continue the contest?" And that argument 
will be effective with those of the army, of the field, or the navy, 
of the factory, of the workman, of the Socialist, of the Zemstvos, 
because it has been the cry by which they have lived, and America 
must not be startled if the war should cease there completely. 

That would mean, therefore, that the German soldiers — the 
thousands and thousands of them — would be moved from Russia 
down to the border to war against France or Britain. It would 
mean that the thousands and thousands of German prisoners held 
by the Russian powers, will be released and enter into this conflict 
against our Allies in a manner with which we have not heretofore 
counted. But if that seems to you a doleful situation, I have a 
suggestion to offset it. It is, that when this event transpires, Japan 
must recognize if this shall be a success, that Germany then means 
to move down through Russia, across the Russian border into Si- 
beria, and on to the East. Japan must realize then that Russia 
will be friendly to Germany, and that the understanding is complete. 
And, Japan must realize that Germany will not then lose her chance 
to punish Japan for driving her out of Shantung — Kia Chow — in 
China, at the beginning of the war. Japan would realize then that 

12 



Russia and Germany, with this understanding, would punish her 
for fighting Russia. The Japanese armies would turn and move 
there upon the Germans and Russia, and, for the first time, the 
Japanese armies would be called into the conflict in Europe out of 
necessity. 

Turkey, beholding this understanding of Germany with Rus- 
sia, would know that it meant that Germany had surrendered Tur- 
key to Russia. Turkey, realizing this situation, would argue to 
itself, saying — "What is the use of fighting for Germany — she 
went into the war upon the theory, of course, she was being pro- 
tected from Russia. But when Germany and Russia come to an 
understanding, the only object brought Turkey into the war being 
denied — further war for Germany would cease to be necessary. 
It matters not which of the Allies or the central powers would sur- 
vive — Turkey will see that she is to be sacrificed by her friend 
Britain, who saved her from Russia in the Crimean war, or Ger- 
many, who now surrenders her to Russia. 

And America — how will she stand or where will she stand? 

With the weakening condition of France and Britain — I de- 
plore to tell you, my judgment is America will stand as the one 
chief, principal antagonist of the central powers. From America 
will have to come the money and supplies, the men — and the great 
burden of this conflict will be upon you. Though you may not have 
wished it — though you would have avoided it — yet there it is. Only 
a sudden peace — which I feel is not unlikely — I say this for rea- 
sons I cannot utter here — can avoid the war for America as Ameri- 
ca's distinct conflict. 

You, then, men and women, must awake and realize this is 
your conflict. If America shall fail in this undertaking, the very 
last ground of freedom and liberty will be taken from the feet of 
civilization. You of America have remain the vanguard, the ideal, 
the inspiration to other people in the world who craved liberty and 
prayed for justice. 

Your motherland, sir — Ireland — though she began her fight 
long before we were ever founded, shall turn her face to America 
for her inspiration. It was here she found her friends, her succor, 
her support. And to Irishmen, America has ever turned to find 
her firm defenders in every encounter. Surely in this room we will 
not differ about the causes that led us into the conflict — though we 
may differ as to the controversy between the Allies and the cen- 
tral powers. We only know now that America is at stake, and the 
only thing before us in this hour is the vow which the great Web- 
ster proclaimed upon Bunker Hill, upon the visit of LaFayette, 
when he said — "At last our creed is our country; our whole coun- 
try and nothing but our country!" (Applause). But, when this 
honor is achieved, when this bulwark is obtained, what then? Must 
America stop? Is that all her duty? 

13 



First she looks at home — looks to the patriotism of her own 
land. Not only you will find enemies abroad, but there will be con- 
flict at our doors. I now warn you that America is in no mood to 
tolerate that class of individuals who are in America practicing pir- 
acy upon existence in this country while our children are at war ! 
And, if the hour shall come upon this country when the food thieves 
and fuel barons of the land shall through speculation or criminal 
agencies attempt to impoverish the people of this land, while the 
soldiers hunger — they will be treated as traitors and be either 
hanged by the civil law or shot by a court martial for the crime 
against the United States. (Applause). 

I speak for the President and I speak for your Congress, and 
I speak for your Representatives w^hen I say that there will be no 
repetition of those scandals, wrongs and outrages upon America as 
were permitted in the Civil War and duplicated, as you know, in the 
Spanish-American service. While civil proceedings seem slow and 
deceiving, I assure you a remedy is being prepared for them by 
which there will be no more than one offense perpetrated before 
the eyes of our country. Then, when we have taken care of those 
things at home, prepared for our boys abroad, what then? When 
America stands victorious in all places— shall that end it all? For 
myself, I say it cannot be. For we have started on this course not 
only for our honor and glory, but to defend the causes and prin- 
ciples of democracy. The theory of free governments, to every man, 
liberty and justice and the right of self-government. Then Amer- 
ica, I pray God, may never present to the earth that contemptible 
spectacle that when she has obtained her own victory she will cease 
— I pray she will not present to the earth that confession that she 
could use those when our cause needed help, but when the oppor- 
tunity came to help those who helped us she was ungrateful enough 
to surrender or cowardly enough to betray. I have no fears she 
can ever do so. There is Hungary — there is Bohemia — there is 
Poland — and many other of those little lands whose people have 
craved and prayed and striven and suffered' and bled that they 
might have freedom — that they might govern themselves, that they 
might enjoy the democracy America knows. Surely, we will give 
to them whenever possible the enjoyment that is due them and ful- 
fill the promise which from our lives we have so far given them. 

As to Ireland — shall I not say here in this place, to men who 
neither misunderstand me nor would ever misrepresent me — that 
I know I speak the sentiment of all the administration which in 
part it is my honor and distinction to represent — when I tell you 
that the purpose of this administration, so far as it can be now de- 
fined and prescribed, is that, first, we move to the common cause 
of victory against the enemy. That then there shall be the ful- 
fillment to the fullest degree in our power of those promises to all 
which we have made in behalf of those lands whose oppressed con- 
ditions have ever been the object of our solicitude, and whose 

14 



miseries and cries have ever been the very theme of our promises of 
refuge and deliverance. 

Irishmen are indeed to recognize that in the heart of the Pres- 
ident of the United States— be he of whatever poHtical party— in 
the soul of the chief executive and representatives of government; 
of all political parties— that now there is that feeling which has here- 
tofore animated them — the sense that shall always animate them — 
the same noble desire that has always availed them. No. There 
can never be a time when America must not remember that whether 
it was Stonewall Jackson or Cleburne of the South or Phil Sheri- 
dan or Kearney of the North, that in every conflict where America 
had liberty to preserve, it was Irishmen who gave their lives and 
never hesitated to lay down all they had to preserve it. All this 
from the Revolutionary to the Civil War! From the Civil War 
to the Spanish-American War! For America— thousands of your 
people, Irishmen, who have never been given a chance to fight for 
their own country, as a country, have ever laid their lives down 
for every country in the needed day, to the call of duty! Surely, 
no man living can doubt what America can do at such an hour! 
There could be no doubt as to what America could do ! The rep- 
resentatives of America in power could not be divided or neglect- 
ful about it. 

And I have to tell you now I recognize the rights of Ireland 
— as I do any of these other countries wherever they are — to have 
self-government of its own institutions. This is not only home rule 
—it is the poHcy of democracy by Ireland, for Ireland, through 
Ireland, that is in the heart of the President, and is the desire of 
all public representatives, and is the intention of America to 
secure, if possible, by any action within her power. (Applause). 

I have a word : I regret I spoke so long. I did not note how 
the time flies. I have had so little time to see my own people, so 
few have been my opportunities that while I have held this hope, 
I fear I have fatigued you, though it is because I have not seen 
you for so long. (Voices — "Go on — we'll stay with you.") 

Let me conclude: I have, for myself, ladies and gentlemen, 
no doubt that the final outcome of this conflict will be all that you 
could desire. Irishmen— there may be some differences between 
you and your fellows as to the methods of establishing self-govern- 
ment in your motherland, but as soon as you become reconciled 
among yourselves, your destiny will be clear. The citizens of 
America that are not Irish, and do not understand your problems, 
—they must not assume to solve your questions over your heads. 
I have every confidence that when the time arrives when the peace 
propositions are made, in which America shall participate — and the 
final disposition of these conflicts come to the table, I know that the 
eminent leading Irishmen of this country will be called by the repre- 
sentatives of this administration to the table, to voice the facts of 

15 



their country, and what shall be justice to their country in this era. 
I have every confidence your voice will be heard and that which you 
regard best will be done. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I have in this conversation brought 
nearer to you the condition of our land. I ask now that you get 
near and give vow to move out to the single purpose of serving this, 
our country, to her glory and to her victory — to the achievement 
not only of the ideals of democracy, but the justification of this 
Republic. As I depart from you with my grateful thanks, may I 
have a call to you that we can acknowledge with her, our Illinois, 
— the state of Illinois, — the one lUinoisan who sent to the world the 
first lessons of the real democracy. We will recall that when the 
elder Brutus was visited by the spirits who said to him: "Who 
shall first kiss their mother shall be kings of the earth." He, 
presuming to misunderstand, dropped down to the ground and kissed 
the earth beneath him, to demonstrate that it was the earth that 
was the mother of us all. 

So, on this day, my fellow Americans, may I make the applica- 
tion? At this hour at our feet is our United States. This earth 
we again kiss with devotion- — we revive to memory every sacrifice 
made, every noble undertaking she has entered upon, and repeat 
her glorious achievements on the earth. We pay tribute to the 
splendor of her women, the nobility of her men, — and in this hour 
we consecrate her again and dedicate our every undertaking to her 
success and every sacrifice to her glory, in whatever cause she 
shall enter. All this for that we have borne in upon us the 
solemn fact that the hour is really upon us, when before the world 
we must vindicate the dream of the great Lincoln, of a government 
of the people, by the people and for the people, that shall not perish 
from the earth ! 

I thank you. (Extended applause). 



The Chairman : Ladies and gentlemen : I am sure you have 
been charmed by the eloquent address that you have just heard. 
It certainly has given us food for thought. There have been many 
side lights thrown on the war situation by the distinguished Senator 
which we, as citizens, were not cognizant of, and of which, if we 
were cognizant, we have not been paying sufificient attention to. 
I am sure I express the sentiment of all here when I say that 
Senator Lewis never needs a formal invitation to the Irish Fellow- 
ship Club — he has a standing invitation, and we are always pleased 
to hear him and have him with us. 

The program will conclude with the National Anthem 

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